Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 245 

Chapter 9 

Media Advocacy 
 


Once you “get” media advocacy, you have to do it. 

Or live with the fact that you’re not doing everything 

you can to make a difference. 

—	 Makani Themba-Nixon in News for a Change: 

An Advocate’s Guide to Working With the Media (1999) 

Media advocacy is defined as the strategic use of mass media and community 

advocacy to advance environmental change or a public policy initiative. The 

concept has been used broadly on tobacco control and other issues, and it 

has many applications. One key application is as a response to issues involving well-financed opponents who use money to shape the political and social 

environment. Compared with public relations, media advocacy is more 

focused on a particular policy goal, resulting in social change. It’s also more 

decentralized, community based, and community owned. 

The information in this chapter focuses on the strategy behind media 

advocacy and why it’s important. Practical “how-to” steps for developing 

materials and working with the media are outlined in Chapter 8: Public 

Relations. These steps should be reviewed before you read this chapter. 

Traditionally, health communications used the media to re-create, on a large 

scale, the instructive relationship of a physician to patient or a teacher to 

student. In contrast, media advocacy doesn’t try to persuade individuals to 

make specific behavior changes, but instead seeks to use the media to change 

the social environment in which individuals make personal behavior decisions. Media advocacy focuses on the social forces that shape behavior—that 

is, on public and private policy—rather than on personal behavior. The goal is 

to attain a more sweeping and permanent change in society at large. 

In This Chapter
 


•	 Coordinating Media 

Advocacy Efforts 

•	 Elements of Media 

Advocacy: Focus on 

Strategy 

•	 Media Advocacy in 

Action: the Art of 

Framing 

•	 Evaluating Your 

Media Advocacy 

Efforts 
246 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

What Media Advocacy 

Does and Doesn’t Do 

Does 

■ 	 Rely on collaborative 

message development 

■ 	 Reinforce social responsibility for the problem 

of tobacco 

■ 	 Focus on advancing 

policy change 

■ 	 Give people a voice 

■ 	 Train the community in 

media skills 

■ 	 Help communities create long-lasting environmental change 

Doesn’t 

■ 	 Rely solely on profes­
 

sional message develop­


ment 
 

■ 	 Emphasize individual 
 

responsibility for the 
 

problem of tobacco 
 

■ 	 Tell individuals what 
 

they should think 
 

■ 	 Give people a message 

■ 	 Take care of the media 
 

for the community 
 

■ 	 Guarantee individual 
 

behavior change based 
 

on new information 
 

Media advocacy is based on an understanding 

that the media are a tool, not a goal, and that 

media coverage is a means to an end, not an 

end in itself. Through the media, advocates 

gain access and a voice in the social decisionmaking process. But the use of media alone 

won’t accomplish the goal of change. Media 

advocacy efforts should be used in combination with other communications and 

policy initiatives. 

heard and inspiring others to join in your 

cause. It can change attitudes and create a 

flood of support. Media advocacy begins with 

the premise that those closest to a problem are 

the best positioned to fix it and takes advantage of the fact that most media are local. It 

can extend the reach and penetration of any 

statewide media campaign by piggybacking 

national stories and extending the reach of a 

scientific report or finding. 

Media advocacy is a crucial component of a 

comprehensive media campaign because it 

empowers the community and targets policy 

makers. It’s a way of getting your message 

There are no specific “recipes” for media advocacy. The successful use of media advocacy 

requires flexibility and being in tune with community issues, needs, and resources so that 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 247 

opportunities are embraced when they arise. 

Media advocacy is a learning process, and 

skills are developed through practice. Media 

advocacy requires long-term thinking and not 

being discouraged by short-term setbacks. 

When media advocacy efforts begin to succeed, you may face greater challenges as the 

opposition responds. 

Coordinating Media Advocacy 

Efforts 

Unlike other counter-marketing components, 

the role of the state health department in 

media advocacy is to support the policy efforts 

of local coalitions, which are often led by advocacy groups. A major challenge for the countermarketing team is coordinating efforts so that 

everyone is working toward common or complementary goals and that each partner is 

working in the appropriate role. For example, 

public officials may need to avoid lobbying, 

but other partners may focus their attention in 

this area. Some partners may be better at collecting data and analyzing results of initiatives 

to inform changes in strategies. 

To ensure that media advocacy efforts and 

your broader counter-marketing program are 

consistent with, and supportive of, each other, 

your counter-marketing team should coordinate its efforts with those of local coalitions as 

it conducts activities that are best delivered 

from a central source. Your team should: 

■	 	 Identify potential statewide and local 

advocacy groups and individuals that 

can support your efforts 

■	 	 Invite representatives from advocacy 
 

groups to be part of your campaign 
 

advisory board; their involvement in 
 

planning and implementation of key 
 

strategies ensures that everyone’s efforts 
 

support a common goal 
 

■	 	 Share campaign materials with advo­
 

cates so that they can comment on 
 

these materials, help improve them, 
 

help promote the campaign, and deflect 
 

criticism and attacks from the tobacco 
 

industry and others 
 

You also should consider operating an intrastate media network that includes programs 

aligned with state goals. Through your 

network, you can offer: 

■	 	 Technical assistance, including access to 
 

national experts 
 

■	 	 Information sharing, particularly on 
 

your program’s effectiveness and industry 
 

opposition 
 

■	 	 Networking, which offers the opportuni­
 

ty for brainstorming 
 

■	 	 Training in areas, such as message 
 

development and spokesperson training 
 

■	 	 Evaluation and feedback, which are part 
 

of the on-the-job learning that makes 
 

advocates better at what they do 
 

■	 	 Tools, such as press releases and talking 
 

points, that advocates can customize for 
 

their communities 
 

■	 	 Tie-ins to paid media campaigns, which 
 

can help support a program’s paid cam­


paign and generate earned coverage 
 
248 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

■	 	 “Action Alerts,” e-mails that describe key 

opportunities and how local advocates 

can take advantage of them 

Sharing activities and events through a media 

network will allow local media advocacy efforts 

and your program to complement and support 

each other. Information on how to develop 

and use media materials and tactics can be 

found in Chapter 8: Public Relations. The 

primary pitfall to avoid is providing grants or 

other funding for local advocacy groups or 

coalitions without central support, training, 

technical assistance, and coordination. 

Without this support, you may find that funds 

aren’t spent efficiently and you may not see the 

results that indicate progress toward your 

state’s goals. 

Interviewing With the Media: When 

Less Is More 

Anyone who has been interviewed for a local 

television news program knows the drill. First, 

you get the call from a producer asking if 

you’re available. Then, you set up an appointment for the video crew to come and tape the 

interview. In the intervening time, you might 

pore over fact sheets and background materials to ensure that you’re familiar with the latest 

information. You might talk to your colleagues 

and co-workers about what you should say, 

straighten up your office (and yourself), and 

maybe call friends and relatives to let them 

know that you’re going to be on TV. When the 

crew arrives, you drop everything to help them 

set up. While they’re framing the shot and 

adjusting the lights and the camera, you talk 

with the producer and/or the interviewer. 

Finally, the interview begins. Under the hot 

lights, you’re asked a few questions and give 

the best answers you can. You may be asked to 

repeat a few statements. The interview may be 

over in five minutes, or it may last as long as 20 

minutes, but half of your day has been devoted 

to it. 

After all of this investment in time and energy, 

if you did a really good job, you may be given 

10 seconds of news time. If the interview was with a newspaper reporter, 

the process has been similar (except 

for the lights and camera) and you 

might be given a one- or twosentence quote in the finished story. 

Is this tiny payoff worth your time 

and effort? Don’t you have more 

important things to do? You have so 

much to say on this important topic! 

How can they reduce it to 10 seconds 

or a few sentences? 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 249 

It may seem like you’ve invested too much 

effort for so little in return, but a few wellchosen, well-placed words can have a greater 

impact than a long treatise. The key is knowing 

how to use those 10 seconds or those two 

sentences strategically by framing your message well and aiming it at the right audience. 

Considering the Industry’s Response 

Media advocacy has been used on a variety of 

social issues, such as housing, alcohol control, 

childhood lead poisoning prevention, and 

violence prevention. Tobacco control advocates 

were generating headlines that reframed society’s 

view of tobacco use from a personal decision 

to a public health problem decades before 

dedicated cigarette tax increases, successful 

lawsuits, and the Master Settlement 

Agreement provided significant funds for 

sophisticated advertising campaigns. They did 

this for a very practical reason—it worked! 

When people think of using the media to help 

solve public health issues, too often their 

imaginations are limited by what they’ve seen 

or done before. Posters, bumper stickers, 

The Roper Report 

The following are excerpts from the 1978 “Study of Public Attitudes Toward Cigarette Smoking and the 
 

Tobacco Industry,” conducted for the Tobacco Institute by the Roper Organization. This study was one of 
 

the first internal industry documents to be revealed to the public after it was subpoenaed by the Federal 
 

Trade Commission in the 1980s. 
 

Implications of the Findings 

The original Surgeon General’s report, followed by the first “hazard” warning on cigarette packages, the 

subsequent “danger” warning on packages, the removal of cigarette advertising from television, and the 

inclusion of the danger warning in cigarette advertising were all “blows” of sorts for the tobacco industry. 

They were, however, blows that the cigarette industry could successfully weather because they were all 

directed against the smoker himself. While the overwhelming majority of the public has been convinced 

by the antismoking forces that smoking is dangerous to the smokers’ health, this has not persuaded very 

many smokers to give up smoking. 

The antismoking forces’ latest tack, however—on the passive smoking issue—is another matter. What the 

smoker does to himself may be his business, but what the smoker does to the nonsmoker is quite a different matter. . . . 

This we see as the most dangerous development to the viability of the tobacco industry that has yet
 

occurred. . . . The issue, as we see it, is no longer what the smoker does to himself, but what he does to
 

others.
 
250 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

pamphlets, and public service announcements often have been the media tools of 

choice, not because evidence suggested that 

these were effective options, but because these 

products were most familiar to advocates. By 

looking carefully at how the industry responds 

to media advocacy initiatives, media advocacy 

practitioners are now better able to identify 

the efforts that are the most threatening to the 

tobacco industry. Until recently, tobacco control advocates seldom had sufficient funds for 

solid evaluation research. However, tobacco 

companies have been able to reach into their 

own deep pockets to research their opposition 

carefully. If tobacco companies fight against a 

tobacco control initiative, it’s probably effective; conversely, if tobacco companies support 

or don’t fight against an initiative, then you 

should probably analyze it well to ensure that 

it’s truly effective before using that tactic in 

your program. 

One example of evolving to tactics that presented a greater threat to the industry relates 

to the positioning of media messages. Through 

most of the 1970s, antitobacco media messages tended to be antismoking messages, 

focusing almost exclusively on persuading 

people to either quit or not start smoking. 

Beginning in the early 1980s, advocates 

reframed the issue to focus on the rights of 

nonsmokers and the need to regulate and 

counteract the tobacco industry’s behavior. In 

other words, individual-focused antismoking 

messages became industry-focused antitobacco 

messages. As revealed by the 1978 Roper 

Report (see sidebar on previous page) and by 

many other internal industry documents that 

were subsequently uncovered, this strategy 

was exactly what the industry feared the most 

because it posed the greatest threat to its economic future. 

The Eclecticism of Media Advocacy 

Because many successful media advocacy 

interventions have produced confrontational, 

hard-hitting news stories, many people 

assume that any controversial news story is 

media advocacy, and that media advocacy is 

always combative. 

Media advocacy does focus on policy change 

or environmental change. However, it doesn’t 

have to be confrontational, and it isn’t limited 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 251 

to earned media. Media advocacy can refer to 

a wide range of activities, including: 

■	 	 Initiating calls, faxes, and e-mails to 

reporters (“pitching” stories or angles) 

■	 	 Responding to calls and e-mails from 

reporters 

■	 	 Designing good visual images for 
 


TV cameras
 


■	 	 Helping to develop messages for 
 


targeted paid media campaigns
 


■	 	 Helping to identify or develop good 

storylines that will appeal to media 

representatives 

■	 	 Staging strategic media events 

■	 	 Developing long-term relationships 

with editors, producers, and reporters 

(known as “media gatekeepers”) 

■	 	 Alerting the media about important 

political or other policy-related developments and framing these developments 

for the media 

■	 	 Meeting with newspaper editorial
 


boards
 


■	 	 Writing opinion/editorial (op-ed)
 


columns and letters to the editor
 


■	 	 Conducting creative research to educate 
 

the media and to generate media 
 

attention 
 

This list could go on. Anything that is done 

strategically to use the media to advance 

policy change or policy enforcement could be 

called media advocacy. Like other communication strategies, media advocacy works best 

when it’s designed to advance a specific goal 

and when it’s part of a comprehensive media 

plan that employs a variety of tactics, including paid media. (See Chapter 7: Advertising 

and Chapter 8: Public Relations for more 

information about earned and paid media 

strategies and tactics.) 

Elements of Media Advocacy: Focus 

on Strategy 

As noted earlier, media advocacy is the strategic 

use of media and community advocacy to 
252 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

create policy or environmental change. Those 

who work with the media face a range of 

options requiring strategic decisions whenever 

they have (or create) a piece of news: 

■	 	 Should I share this information with 

the press? 

■	 	 Should I call all of the reporters that I 

know or offer the story as an exclusive to 

one reporter? 

■	 	 Is this development worthy of a press 

conference? 

■	 	 Should we stage a press event and hope 

that the media will cover it? 

The answers to these questions vary according 

to the history, the surrounding circumstances, 

and the goal of each media advocacy intervention. In every case, the answers should be 

based on what makes the most strategic sense 

at the time. For example, holding a press conference may be a wise choice, but only if doing 

so will be an efficient and effective way to 

advance toward the overall goal. 

The basis for success in every media advocacy 

intervention is disciplining yourself to answer 

five important questions: 

1. 	 What do you want? This first question 

forces you to begin at the end and work 

backward by defining your policy goal 

or purpose in terms that are as realistic 

and specific as possible. Define the 

problem that you want to solve in terms 

that can be addressed by policy change 

(or policy enforcement), and state the 

solution that you seek in terms of specific 

policy action. You don’t need to articulate a comprehensive solution to the 

problem, just the next concrete step 

along the path to your goal. 

2.	 	Who can give you what you want? 

Define your target audience. Do you 

need cooperation from local merchants? 

Action by the city council? Help from 

the governor? Who has the power to 

provide what you need to accomplish 

your goal? What is their self-interest? 

Who or what influences them? Are there 

secondary audiences that you can reach 

more easily who can influence the primary target? These policy decision makers, not the general public, are typically 

your primary target audience for media 

advocacy. 

3.	 	What do they need to hear? Once 

you’ve determined who has the power 

to provide what you want (i.e., your 

target audience), you need to determine 

what types of messages will most likely 

resonate with them. Begin developing 

your message by learning what your 

audience is thinking; don’t assume that 

they’ll accept your premises. Will they 

be influenced by new health information? By popular opinion in the community? By examples of success stories in 

other states? 

4.	 	From whom should they hear it? 

Identify your messenger by determining who’ll have the greatest chance of 

influencing your target audience. State 

legislators may be more responsive to a 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 253 

concerned parent who is also a constituent than to a trained epidemiologist 

who comes in from out of town. 

Conversely, a local board of health may 

be more responsive to a scientific 

expert. Learn about the decision-making process that you seek to influence so 

that you can choose your spokespeople 

strategically. 

5. How can you reach your target audience? What kind of media coverage will 

attract your target audience’s attention? 

Will a letter to the editor be noticed? Will 

TV news coverage of the results of a new 

scientific study reach them? Will a 

staged media event be effective? 

Case Study: X Marks the Target 

This case study is excerpted from News for a Change: An Advocate’s Guide to Working With the Media 

(Wallack et al. 1999). 

“X” was a proposed cigarette brand that many activists believed appropriated the strong, positive 

sentiment that young African Americans have for Malcolm X for use in selling cigarettes. The brand 

was manufactured by a small Massachusetts company, Star Tobacco Corporation, and marketed and 

distributed by Duffy Distributors. The packaging, marketing, and low price seemed lethal weapons in the 

tobacco industry’s efforts to hook more young African Americans. 

The effort to stop X brand cigarettes evolved out of a network of activists who had been mobilizing 

communities of color around the targeted marketing of tobacco and alcohol products. Brenda BellCaffee, director of the California African American Tobacco Education Network, saw a message about X 

on a computer mailing list for tobacco control advocates and immediately alerted her colleagues. In the 

group’s assessment, the two small companies that manufactured and marketed the product were more 

reachable, winnable targets than any relevant public agencies. The strategy was, therefore, crafted to 

mobilize pressure and shame these companies into revoking the brand. 

The group worked to shame the targeted companies by emphasizing two messages: X brand, whether 

purposely or not, defamed an important leader and cultural icon—Malcolm X; and it was packaged in a 

way that was sure to attract African American youth. The group gave the companies 10 days to withdraw 

the brand. 

Media played a critical role in pressuring the companies to respond. Activists got the word out to both 

African American and corporate-owned media outlets, and articles on X appeared in more than 100 

newspapers nationwide. Succumbing to national pressure, Duffy Distributors issued a statement one 

day after the deadline, which—without any admission of wrongdoing—announced that it had decided 

to withdraw the X brand cigarettes from distribution. 
254 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

Answer these questions before you begin planning each media advocacy event. Review your 

answers often during the planning and evaluation process. 

Sometimes the best media advocacy option 

is counterintuitive. For example, if someone 

asked, “What do you do when a reporter asks 

you a question?” most people would probably 

say, “Answer it.” But the most obvious 

response may not be the best. Consider the 

following options: 

■	 	 The reporter’s question may not lead to 

the best information or to information 

in the best “frame” (more on framing 

later). You probably know more about 

the issue than the reporter does. If 

you’re asked a badly framed question 

(e.g., one that presumes tobacco control 

is a battle between smokers and nonsmokers), it may be strategic for you to 

suggest a different question and then 

answer that one instead (e.g., one that 

reframes the issue as a battle of smokers 

and nonsmokers against corporations 

that sell a lethal and addictive product). 

■	 	 You may not be the most strategic person to answer the question. There may 

be someone else whose knowledge, skill, 

reputation, or personal experience 

makes that person a better choice to 

answer the question and a better messenger for the information. The strategic 

choice may be to refer the reporter to 

this other source and explain why. 

■	 	 Perhaps you don’t know the answer or 

don’t know as much as you would like to 

answer the question. The most strategic 

response may be that you’ll investigate 

and get back to the reporter with the 

best information available. 

If you decide to simply answer the question, 

you still have a range of choices. Consider the 

different responses to the question, “What 

does your organization do?” 

■	 	 “We fight cancer and heart disease 

caused by tobacco use.” 

■	 	 “Right now, we’re trying to help encourage local restaurants to go smokefree.” 

■	 	 “We support the community’s efforts to 

reduce tobacco use by young people.” 

■	 	 “We fight to counteract the damage 

done by tobacco companies as they 

try to addict a new generation of 

customers.” 

Even when you’re having a casual conversation 

with a reporter, you might be faced with a 

dozen or more questions, each of which 

produces its own range of strategic options. 

Whether deciding if you should stage a major 

media event or answer a simple question from 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 255 

a reporter, good media advocacy is always 

driven by strategic thinking. Always keep your 

eyes on your policy goal. 

specialists or experts can be hired or appointed to plan and execute the strategy for you. 

However, community-based social change 

can’t be contracted out or delegated; if the 

community doesn’t want to change, change 

won’t happen. When the community does 

want to change, media advocacy is a way that 

community members can make the change

happen themselves. 

Community Empowerment 

The second important part of the definition of 

media advocacy is “community advocacy.” 

True media advocacy does not exist without 

community advocacy. Many traditional media 

strategies are aimed at trying to change individual behaviors or beliefs. Media advocacy 

works with the community to change the environment within which individual decisions are 

made. For example, instead of using the media 

to try to convince people that smoking is 

expensive and dangerous, one media advocacy 

approach would be to try to persuade building 

owners to ban tobacco use on their premises. 

Media Advocacy in Action: the Art 

of Framing 

Ask a group of tobacco control advocates 

whether tobacco receives enough coverage in 

the news media, and most will tell you that it 

doesn’t. Ask that same group whether they’ve 

ever seen any news stories about tobacco that 

distorted the issue or otherwise didn’t help 

advance tobacco control, and they will tell you 

that they’ve seen many such unproductive 

stories. One of the most common complaints 

Working with the community is an important 

part of a media advocacy approach. In many 

other parts of your counter-marketing program, 

When issue advocates sit around a table to talk ‘message,’ they invariably rush to 
 

hatching catchy slogans and clever sound bites. Or they concoct elaborate arguments 
 

put forward by their adversaries. Good sound bites and slogans—and speeches, 
 

policy solutions, meaningful statistics, arguments—all support and reinforce your 
 

message, but they aren’t what communications experts mean by ‘message.’ To com­
 

munications professionals, your message is your organizing theme. And no media 
 

advocacy campaign can succeed without a powerful, coherent organizing theme, a 
 

theme that is at the same time logically persuasive, morally authoritative, and capa­
 

ble of evoking passion. A campaign message must speak at one and the same time to 
 

the brain and the heart. 
 

— Ethel Klein, 

political scientist 
256 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

Framing Example: Same Question, Different Answers 

Before you talk to a reporter, you should define your goal and how you hope to accomplish it. Do you 

want to generate publicity for your organization? Are you trying to advance a specific policy? Are you 

trying to focus media attention on the role of tobacco companies? 

Consider this common question: Why do teens smoke? 

Tobacco companies suggest that smoking is normative with this typical answer: “Peer pressure. Teens 

smoke because they want to fit in with their friends.” Through this response, the tobacco companies are 

trying to divert attention from their well-financed marketing programs and draw resources away from 

prevention programs that really do work. This question has many better answers. Each answer brings a 

slightly different focus to the problem or the solution. 

■	 	 Answer: Teens smoke because we make it easy for them to get cigarettes. Therefore, we need to 

keep cigarettes out of the hands of our children. 

■	 	 Focus: Youth access laws 

■	 	 Answer: Teens smoke because the tobacco industry needs them to replace dying older smokers. No 

one knows how to market to a target audience more effectively than this industry. 

■	 	 Focus: Industry behavior 

■	 	 Answer: Actually, teens aren’t smoking as much as they were several years ago. We’re doing a much 

better job of keeping teens away from tobacco. 

■	 	 Focus: The effectiveness of your tobacco control program 

■	 	 Answer: Not all teens are smoking more. African American teens, for example, smoke at a much 

lower rate than whites or Asians. We need to put our resources into the areas that need the most 

help. 

■	 	 Focus: Disparities 

■	 	 Answer: Teens experiment with a lot of things. They continue to smoke for the same reason that 

adults do—nicotine is highly addictive. We need to give teens the same kinds of cessation services 

that we give to adults. 

■	 	 Focus: Youth cessation 

Even though the reporter is asking the questions, your answers have the power to influence the story and 

how it’s framed. By answering strategically, you can help increase the chances that they get the story right. 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 257 

about the news media is that “they don’t get 

the story right.” 

Getting the media interested in a story and 

helping to ensure that they get the story right 

are what framing is all about. These two facets 

of framing are called “framing for access” and 

“framing for content.” 

Framing for access is what you do when you’re 

trying to get the media interested in your story. 

By gaining the attention of journalists, you 

gain access to the media. When you’re framing 

for access, you “pitch” a newsworthy aspect of 

your story that will make the reporters want to 

attend your event, interview your spokesperson, and so on. Use the “Checklist to 

Determine Newsworthiness” found in Chapter 

8: Public Relations when selecting the best 

news angle for each story idea. Consider what 

each reporter will be the most interested in 

covering. If you’re trying to educate the 

community about secondhand smoke to lay 

the groundwork for clean indoor air policies, 

and you’re approaching a reporter for the 

newspaper’s business section, perhaps you can 

emphasize the economic costs that the restaurant and bar owners incur when their employees 

become ill from breathing secondhand smoke. 

If you’re approaching a TV reporter who covers 

family-related issues, emphasize the risks of 

secondhand smoke to family members, especially children, who live with smokers. Once 

you have access to the media, you shift to 

framing for content. When framing for content, you focus on the perspective of the story 

and the information that you want to be conveyed. The reporters, editors, and producers 

who create news stories have to be selective 

about what they include and what they leave 

out of a news story. 

The advocate doesn’t make the decisions 

about what’s included within the frame of a 

story and what’s left out, but the advocate can 

influence those decisions. In every interview, 

meeting, and conversation with a journalist, 

the goal of the advocate is to frame the story so 

that it includes the needed information to promote the policy or environmental change goal. 

When helping to frame or reframe a story for 

content, always keep your overall strategy in 

mind. (Review the answers to the five questions listed earlier in the chapter.) Work constantly to frame stories in ways that help 

advance your policy goal by delivering the 

right message to the right target audience. 

For example, if your goal is to strengthen the 

enforcement of youth access laws, you might 

generate some interest by telling a reporter 

that you have a story about youth smoking 

rates in your community. You’ll have a better 

story if you say that you know several 

teenagers who can tell their personal stories 

about how easy it is to buy tobacco in the 

community. You’ll have a great story if you say 

that you know teens who are organizing to 

pressure merchants and law enforcement 

agencies to do a better job of enforcing youth 

access to tobacco laws. 

Developing the Message 

All of the elements of your message—the content, the tone, the messenger, and the medium 

that delivers it—should be determined by your 

answers to the five strategic planning questions. 
258 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

Effective Media Bites 

What makes a good media bite? By definition, media bites are short—10 to 15 seconds, or 

one or two sentences, or sometimes just a phrase. Good media bites can capture complex 

concepts in simple ways. They paint mental pictures. They evoke strong feelings. They are 

memorable or witty. But most important, good media bites help advance your strategy. 

Being quoted isn’t worth much if the quotes don’t help you accomplish your goals. 

Here’s one example of an effective media bite: 

“Smoking a ‘safer’ cigarette is like jumping out of the 10th story of a building instead 

of the 12th story.” 

This quote addresses the tobacco industry’s efforts to create products that seem relatively 

safe to consumers, such as low-tar cigarettes. This issue can be tricky for advocates 

because, at first glance, removing some of the harmful ingredients in cigarettes seems like 

a good idea. The following media bite is a clever way of conveying the idea that no matter 

what you do to a cigarette, it remains a lethal product: 

“Tobacco is the only consumer product that, when used as directed, kills the user.” 

One of the tobacco industry’s stock arguments is that tobacco is only one of many products (e.g., alcohol and fatty foods) that can be unhealthy. According to this argument, if 

public health advocates succeed in regulating tobacco use, it will only be a matter of time 

until they also regulate the use of these other products. The quote points to a crucial distinction: alcohol, fatty foods, and similar products kill when abused or consumed in 

excess, whereas tobacco products kill when used in their customary, intended way. 

You can brainstorm good media bites ahead of time to have them ready when you need 

them in an interview. Start by anticipating the questions that you might be asked. Then 

do some research. What have advocates said on this issue before? Modernize bites that 

have been used in the past by tying them to current developments. Try out different 

approaches and new ideas. Practice saying your answers out loud. Ask yourself two questions: 

(1) Would this response be likely to make the news? 

(2) Does this answer help advance my goal? 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 259 

When developing your message, keep it short, 

simple, and direct. Plan as if your audience will 

only remember one thing from your media 

advocacy intervention (think of it as the headline). Decide in advance what that one thing 

should be, and base your entire communication around it. 

Whenever possible, use research techniques, 

like opinion surveys and focus groups, to 

develop and test your message. (See Chapter 3: 

Gaining and Using Target Audience Insights for 

more information.) If you don’t have access to 

these methods, talk to friends and relatives 

who don’t work in the health field. Discuss 

the message with members of your target 

audience (e.g., friendly legislators) who can tell 

you what the message means to them and how 

it might influence their actions. 

Monitor the media to see how they 

treat the issue that your message 

addresses. (See the evaluation section 

of Chapter 8: Public Relations for 

details on tracking media coverage.) 

Monitoring the media will allow you 

to understand how your issue is being 

covered and which tobacco control 

and tobacco industry spokespeople 

reporters are contacting. Understanding how the media covers your 

issue is necessary to inform your 

message strategy. Different audiences 

may respond to different messages. 

Your message may (and probably will) 

have to change over time in response 

to a changing environment. If you 

keep your strategic plan in mind, you 

can adapt effectively to these changes. Once 

your messages have been developed, it’s important to share them with your fellow advocates 

so that your message will penetrate the market. 

It takes many different people saying the same 

thing to have an impact on policy makers. 

Link your message to widely held cultural values. Most Americans have a common core set 

of values, including concern for health, equality, fairness, protection of children, respect for 

science, intolerance of deception, and belief in 

the right to a safe and clean environment. You 

don’t have to convince your audience that 

these are good things. You only need to show 

them how these values relate to your message. 
260 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

Case Study: Giving the Target a Choice 

Tony Schwartz provided the paradigm of effective targeting. He made cassette tapes of the following 
 

message and sent them to the members of the New York City Council’s Health Committee: 
 

To the members of the Health Committee of the New York City Council. We’d like to have you listen to 

the following two commercials, and tell us which one you will give us the opportunity to run. We are 

People for a Smoke-Free Indoors. Here’s the first commercial. 

You know the people in the New York City Council have the power to do a lot of good or a lot of 

bad. Just a few Committee Members can see to it that a bill gets immediate attention by the whole 

City Council. Or they can bottle up a bill forever, keeping the City Council from acting on it. Well, 

the City Council Committee on Health just took an action that all New Yorkers can be proud of. 

They just voted the smoking pollution control law out of committee, giving the whole City Council 

a chance to act on it. Despite intense lobbying from very powerful cigarette companies, they took 

this action for the health of New Yorkers. And so, with real pride and admiration for what they’ve 

done for New Yorkers, we say thank you Chairman ___, thank you ___, thank you ___. Thank you all 

for caring enough about the health of New Yorkers to not give in to the special interests. People for 

a Smoke-Free Indoors, Inc., paid for this ad to show our appreciation. 

Here is the second ad. 

You know the people in the New York City Council have the power to do a lot of good or a lot of 

bad. Just a few Committee Members can see to it that a bill gets immediate attention by the whole 

City Council. Or they can bottle up a bill forever, keeping the City Council from acting on it. Well, 

the City Council Committee on Health just took an action that shows they care more about special 

interests than about the people of New York. They just voted down the smoking pollution control 

act, giving in to the powerful cigarette companies and preventing the City Council from acting for 

the health of all New Yorkers. If this makes you mad, write or call the Health Committee members 

and tell them how you feel. Tell ___, ___, ___. Tell them all that you don’t appreciate it when they 

show they care more about special interests than they do about the health of New Yorkers. And if 

you don’t tell them now, tell them next election day. Paid for by People for a Smoke-Free Indoors, Inc. 

So call me at ___, and tell me which one you’d like us to run. 

People for a Smoke-Free Indoors had already purchased the radio time to run one of these ads. The bill 

passed out of committee and was eventually approved by the full council. The first ad was aired. 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 261 

A good message does three things: 

1.	 	States the concern (e.g., secondhand 

smoke is dangerous to nonsmokers) 

2.	 	Evokes a widely held value (e.g., it’s 

unfair to impose health risks on nonsmokers while they’re trying to earn a 

living or to enjoy public accommodations) 

3.	 	Presents a solution (e.g., because nonsmokers have a right to breathe clean air 

in public places and at work, clean 

indoor air policies should be supported) 

Targeting the Audience 

When you aim at the whole world, you often 

hit no one. Strategic use of the media includes 

knowing exactly whom you want to reach and 

how to reach them. 

All stations and publications that sell advertising know the demographics of their audiences. 

They base their programming on that information and use it to sell advertising. You can use 

that information to communicate your message to target audiences. Tobacco companies 

use it with precision to sell their deadly products. For the purposes of media advocacy, 

don’t think of the media as a way to broadcast 

to the whole world. Rather, think of the media 

as a way to “narrowcast” your message—to 

have a personal conversation with your specific 

target. When narrowcasting is done well, it can 

function as “guerrilla media.” Tony Schwartz is 

one of the great masters of guerrilla media, 

producer of some of the first and most powerful tobacco counter-marketing efforts, and the 

author of The Responsive Chord, which is a 

seminal contribution to media advocacy. He 

prefers radio for precision targeting because 

it’s ubiquitous and inexpensive, and it accompanies many commuters to work. When the 

message is crafted well enough to reflect 

what’s already in the audience’s mind, radio is 

especially effective in piercing the consciousness. As Schwartz points out, “People don’t 

have earlids.” 

Evaluating Your Media Advocacy 

Efforts 

Changing tobacco policy through media 

advocacy can take a long time. It’s a complex 

process that requires balancing focus and 

flexibility. By evaluating your efforts, you can 

continue to improve how you work with 

reporters and become more effective in working with them, thus helping to advance social 

change. 

Evaluation can help you respond to the 

inquiries of various stakeholders. Your funders 

may want to know whether media advocacy is 

a worthwhile investment. Media advocates 

will want to know whether what they did was 

consistent with their plan and whether their 

actions produced the results that they wanted. 

Other media advocates may want to draw 

from the lessons that you’ve learned to 

become more effective themselves. Evaluation 

of your media advocacy efforts can help 

answer questions such as the following: 

■	 	 What happened? 

■	 	 Did you do what you intended? 

■	 	 Was your issue covered by a media 
 

channel that your target audience sees, 
 

reads, or listens to? 
 
262 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

■	 	 Was your story told in the way that you 

wanted; that is, did your frame the coverage? 

■	 	 Were you able to build relationships 

with media gatekeepers so that you’re 

now a trusted source for them? 

■	 	 How did those who can effect change 

(e.g., policy makers) and their constituencies react to the media 

advocacy effort? 

■	 	 Did your media work help you build 

community support for the overall policy 

or program goal? 

■	 	 What didn’t go well? What will you
 

change in the future?
 

How To Evaluate Your Media Advocacy 

Efforts 

You may want to review Chapter 5: Evaluating 

the Success of Your Counter-Marketing 

Program, which addresses the evaluation 

process in depth. Be pragmatic in developing 

your evaluation, and use an approach that’s 

geared to the intended use of the results. To do 

this, you’ll want to involve the intended users 

in shaping the evaluation from the start. 

Evaluating media advocacy will be somewhat 

different from evaluating other components of 

a counter-marketing program. Measuring 

media coverage by counting column inches or 

by calculating air time won’t tell you whether 

your efforts have helped to advance your policy goals. Moreover, each media advocacy effort 

is unique, influenced by circumstances and 

shifting to respond to unplanned events and 

breaking news. Many media advocates have 

used case studies to evaluate their efforts. Case 

studies can provide in-depth examinations of 

how media coverage on a particular topic was 

framed and how community advocates were 

involved in the media advocacy initiatives. 

To conduct a process evaluation, you should 

focus mainly on documenting what you did, 

what the media did in response, and whether 

the message was framed in the way that 

you intended. You can use logs and other 

documentation to track your activities and to 

mea-sure whether you’ve achieved your 

process objectives and followed your program 

plan. To document what the media have done, 

clip relevant articles from print sources (or 

electronically search print sources that are also 

published on the Web) and record the TV and 

radio news coverage. Assess whether the stories 

have framed your issue in a way that advanced 

your policy goals. Try to understand why certain news releases or media calls generated 

better coverage than others. Review the coverage with colleagues, friends, and critics, and 

reflect on how the issue was framed. You can 

also hire media tracking services to compile the 

news stories and editorials that appeared during a certain period of time and to categorize 

them by slant, placement, and other factors. In 

addition, interview key parties, such as 

reporters and policy makers. If you find that a 

story didn’t capture the interest of reporters, 

ask them why. These discussions and interviews can help you improve what you do. 

To conduct an outcome evaluation, the most 

important measures relate to changes in social 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 263 

norms and policies, and the specific measures 

will depend on your media advocacy goal. For 

a social norm change, you’ll want to survey the 

knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of those 

among whom you hope to effect change. For a 

policy change, you’ll want to track any actions 

taken by the key parties to adopt relevant policies. Because these changes often take a long 

time, you can also measure short-term outcomes, such as whether public officials recite 

your key messages, facts, or survey results in 

public forums. 

reporters and your target audience, you’ll want 

to use the information to adjust your strategy. 

Results may tell you, for example, that you 

need to use different communication channels 

because your information isn’t reaching your 

target audience. Or your review may show that 

you succeeded in accessing the media, but the 

information wasn’t framed in a way that would 

advance your intended policy objectives. This 

finding may indicate that you need more practice in defining and articulating your frame. 

Using evaluation in this way can help you stay 

focused, keep the message consistent, reach 

your target audience, and impact policy to 

produce the environmental change that you 

seek. 

Using Evaluation Results for 

Decision Making 

Once you’ve analyzed the news coverage with 

your colleagues and collected feedback from 

Points To Remember 

The following is adapted from News for a Change: An Advocate’s Guide to Working With the Media (Wallack 

et al. 1999): 

■	 	 You can’t have a media advocacy strategy without an overall strategy. Think of media advocacy in
 

support of and in addition to other approaches, rather than instead of or in isolation from them.
 

■	 	 If you want to be taken seriously as a credible source for reporters, you need to take the media 
 

seriously. If you want to work effectively through the media, you’ll need to know the media. You 
 

must pay attention to whether and how your issue is covered so that you can be more effective in
 

your own media efforts.
 

■	 	 Understand the conventions and values that drive journalists. Journalists are professionals. Learn 

how they go about their business and use the common ground that you share to give them good, 

newsworthy stories while advancing your issues. Continues 
264 Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 

Points To Remember (cont.) 

■	 Pitch stories, not issues. Tobacco control has been around for a long time. You need to look for new 

ways to make your issues compelling to journalists and news consumers. Journalists think in terms of 

stories. Issues can be vague and bloodless; advocates need to make issues come alive by crafting 

stories. 

■	 Supply journalists with creative story elements that illustrate the policy solution that you support. 

These include good visuals, media bites, and “authentic voices” who can tell compelling personal stories. These elements will help you focus on your solution. The problem may be easier to talk about 

than the solution, but the solution is more important. 

■	 Make your news events count. Plan carefully. Make sure that the speakers, materials, and the setting all 

reinforce your key message. Know what you want to say, say it, repeat it in different ways, and have 

others say it. 

■	 An interview is not a conversation. Think of interviews as potential vehicles to get your message out. 

Stick to your agenda, not the reporter’s. Don’t get lulled into casual thinking. Be purposeful and make 

your point. 

■	 Use the opinion pages to reach policy makers and opinion leaders. An editorial page strategy, including 

op-ed columns, should be part of your media advocacy efforts. It can be more effective than some 

news events in reaching the people who can make a difference to your issue. 

■	 Consider all kinds of media in your strategy. Paid TV and radio advertising, as well as alternative media 

outlets, all have unique uses and can be effective in advancing your goals. Be sure that you know why a 

particular media outlet or approach is right for you now. Whatever media you choose, reuse the news: 

Send copies of articles, op-ed pieces, and letters to the editor to supporters and policy makers (know 

that all of the policy makers keep clipping files of your issue). 

■	 Use evaluation to refine your media advocacy strategy and to improve your effectiveness. Despite your 

best planning and most rigorous efforts, your approaches will not always work. Take setbacks as 

a challenge: rethink your strategies, try different messages or messengers, but don’t give up. 

The following Web site provides a comprehensive set of tobacco activism resources that you may find helpful 

when developing your program: http://www.tobacco.org/Resources/lbguide.html. 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 9: Media Advocacy 265 

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